Best performance EVER by an actor on WMLine. Unlike most celebrities, he did NOT want to be identified--and what a job he did! A GREAT actor even here.
Priceless! He was a fantastic actor, my favorite, and yes very handsome. This appearance is hysterical.....outstanding. It’s cute they misspelled his name.....
This might be the finest performance by a true LEGEND. What a range of voices to confound them with. They could have been there for a week and not guessed who it was.
Possibly the most hilarious What's My Line I have ever seen. I worship you Mr. March! Your performances have stood the test of time, watching you in Les Mis I think you still have the finest film performance of Jean Valjean to date.
Fredric March gave us Mark Twain in "The Adventures of Mark Twain" and the returning G.I. in "The Best Years Of Our Lives". He brought them to life. Very fine actor.
In just 6 years, Fredrick March would star in one of the greatest (and little known) pictures of all time, "Inherit The Wind", with Spencer Tracy and Gene Kelly. Brilliant performances by all three.
@@lodalega9674 - Even the camera operators and make-up men overshadowed Kelly's performance. Not one of his best. However, Tracy was a cannon in that role. Both players, outstanding.
He was so funny in "Nothing Sacred", and in "The Adventures of Mark Twain" really magnificent. I love you Fredric March. You are truly one of the greats.
I have my own copy of his 1931 Jekyll and Hyde and he definitely deserved it, and in my opinion that's his first and only Oscar because the one in 1946 is Larry Park's Oscar.
“Do ladies swoon over you in pictures?” *“NO!”* Now Fredric, I’ve seen a great deal of your work and I thought you weren’t supposed to mislead them, let alone tell a boldfaced lie like that one! 😂
Being so entertained by this WML segment, I've looked him up, & have also been watching in YT, movies & clips of his fine acting. My guess is that there are many women who have in fact swooned over Fredric March, a handsome actor with very great talent 😘⚘🍾💌
I saw him in "Les Misérables" with Charles Laughton and Rochelle Hudson, where he played really great his role as Jean Villejean. He was a really fine actor.
Where would you find this much humor wrapped up in 8:50, and THIS much class, on television today? Absolutely nowhere. At least today's technology can bring us these gems from the past. Thank you for posting this!
Mr March turned in a magnificent performance in one of my favorite movies of all time, "The Best Years of Our Lives". Understated, elegant talent. An all-time great.
March is on a par with Bogart, Brando, Lancaster, Douglas (Melvin AND Kirk)... he does not get his due, and did not even in his lifetime. He melted into he roles and as a result, the panel was lost. He was an ACTOR. Two oscars! March was brilliant. "Man of a Tightrope" was fantastic, even though it was directed by the brilliant coward Elia Kazan. His performances in "Seven Days in May" and "Inherit the Wind" stole the show.
Among those who "know" March definitely gets his due and is commonly recognized as one of America's all-time great actors. Everything he did was gold. An Actor's Actor.
LazlosPlane Absolutely... hate to be a snob, but, like the better-known Henry Fonda, did you ever see March give a bad performance? It is unfortunate that he is not better known today. I keep going back to it, but I think his role in "Man On A Tightrope" is the best film performance of a man on the brink I've ever seen. The tension is so great, you get a headache watching it. "Best Years of Our Lives", "Dr. Jeckyll...", "The Desperate Hours", "Seven Days In May", " A Star Is Born"... why on earth isn't this guy acknowledged as the great actor he was?
But he IS acknowledged!!! By people in the theater and in film, actors, and even among classic film fans he is VERY much acknowledged as among the greatest. The problem is if you want him to be recognized by the general public, let's be real. They have forgotten Rathbone, Colman, Gable, Flynn, Tracey, indeed all the greats. In the area of the stage it's even worse: name one person who has a clue as to who Cohan was and what he accomplished, or Jolson, or Cantor. IT's a joke. It's all gone.
LazlosPlane March is not, in any form, acknowledged today as other major actors of his era. Those being John Wayne, Bogart, James Stewart, etc. I challenge you to ask a young person today who March is among the three actors I mentioned and you would get blank stares. I know, those "in the know" get it. That's not the point. My original post was to highlight the fact that March doesn't get his due. And he didn't get it IN HIS DAY either. Imagine other films icons of his era stumping the "What's My Line Panel"? This is really too bad. This could have been an interesting thread on a great actor. Yet you want to get snobby about it. I get tired of fucksticks like you destroying what should be a positive, fun post. This is over.
You are absolutely right! At last someone puts it as it is! March is incredibly unknown and underrated by the general public! He was one of the greatest American actors of all time and the winner of two Academy Awards (should have won 3 but Louis B.Mayer got in the way)! I find it really frustrating that others like Flynn and Gable were not as good as him but seem to be praised and well known around the world and March is ignored. I think his great need for privacy, his disdain for little gossip tabloid stories, for a settled and permanent studio contract and his (alleged) communist affiliations did not help make him a great star. He's still regarded as an actor more than a movie star.
He was great in so many things. I love him in the WWII homecoming movie "The Best Years of Out Lives" along with Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright, Dana Andrews (1946)
Gil Fates in his book about WML wrote a paragraph about this sequence. Fates had worked with FM before and convinced him to do a mystery guest appearance. Fates described it: "He bamboozled the panel with a series of wildly funny accents and the spot was a smash." A few days later March called Fates wanting to view the kinescope. He reported that in all his years in The Biz, this produced the biggest audience response of anything he did. Apparently his 1st experience with a big TV audience
Enjoyed your comment SO much ! THANKS for sharing that story with us ! I'm so glad Mr March was able to watch his own performance on this classic game show ! What a talent ! What a class act !
Mr. Johnson, you are SO right. - classy all the way. I will never forget the first time I saw Death Takes a Holiday. It was a revelation as to what a real actor can do.
Great actor throughout the many years of his long and illustrious career. And in his salad days he was considered one of the top matinee idols (and unlike most of them he did not only have looks but also great charisma and talent) who made everyone swoon. Lovely and very enjoyable segment.
Yes indeed ! That script (Rod Serling adapted the novel for the screen) was marvelous and was enacted by two truly gifted actors (March and Lancaster) !
How about if he's bigger than a breadbox, Steve? 😂😂 One of the greatest Mystery Guests ever. I wouldn't have thought Fredric March could have pulled this off. Bravo!
I think he's handsomest in the first 3 scenes of Dr. Jeckyll. When you see him for the first time watch for the cool mirror trick. In scene two there are 2 gorgeous close ups of him giving a lecture. In 3rd scene w/the little girl he gives a big smile. He's just as handsome in the Eagle and the Hawk, plus Cary Grant for even more eye candy. He's shirtless in Anna Karenina sauna scene, in tiny togas in Sign of the Cross & is "going commando" in his first scene of Barretts of WImpole St.
One of America's finest, most versatile actors seems to really be having fun with this. One of those rare actors who seemed at home in ALL entertainment media: Stage, films, TV, and recordings. His wife was the very talented Florence Eldridge, with whom he appeared in all of the aforementioned media. One of the first double-Oscar winners, he and Florence had a son and a daughter, the latter of whom married an Italian nobleman.
Mine too ! You clearly have xlnt taste ! I wish "Another Part of the Forest" was as well known as "The Best Years of Our Lives" ! The two characters are so different...but Mr March is amazing and awesome in BOTH roles !
Given what's on TV today, it's simply amazing to watch clips of this witty and intelligent show. No wonder it was able to get so many fabulous actors, singers, writers and others both on the panel and as guests. Nothing on TV today approaches the class and humor of this show. And yes, Fredric March is a fantastic actor -- he was fantastic in Seven Days in May.
Simply one of the finest actors that America has ever had. And I think that he swindled the panel also when he said he wasn't a comedian. I think NOTHING SACRED proves differently, and if Carole Lombard were around, I'm sure she would agree.
RE: March's curtsying down the panel. March appeared as the mystery guest on the same broadcast which featured that memorable appearance of Dorothy Kilgallen's children the week after Dorothy gave birth to Kerry Kollmar. It's available somewhere on YouTubia, At the finish, Dorothy's daughter curtsied her way down the panel. Compare contrast: when the kid did it, it was an impressive show of good manners even by 1954 standards. When March does it, it is just plain funny.
In my humble opinion, Fredrick March was one of the best ever guests featured in this hugely popular TV panel show. He was a remarkable actor, who enjoyed a long and distinguished career in dramatic films. However, he could also excel in comedy as this guest appearance Illustrates.
Brilliant, just fabulously brilliant. As enjoyable a WML segment as you'll ever see; a great actor doing a great act on live TV. Thanks, as always, for posting. Note: CHECK OUT Mr. MARCH in the 1940 film "ONE FOOT IN HEAVEN"; if you admire March and haven't seen this wonderful film, you're in for a real treat. LR
Talented, versatile, March was one of those actors who alternated between the stage and films, contributing noteworthy, distinguished performances to both...and a true class act besides.
Did not really appreciate him until The Best Years of Our Lives. Unbelievably real. Huge star. He doesn't get the accolades because he was so good and uncontroversial. No gossip ever. Warm hearted mature artist.
Fredric March was funny and talented with his voice impersonations. I saw him in only one movie where he played a vice president. I did not understand his full talent. What a great actor and one of my favorite mystery guests because he really fooled the panel.
I recently turned 65. I must admit, I occasionally have to look up the mystery guest. Many, like Mr March, I recognize by name. I’ll have to watch some of his movies.
Fredric March in person bears absolutely no relationship to any of the characters I've seen him play. He is truly a remarkably talented actor. Even the often vicious and impossible-to-please late critic John Simon named Mr. March his personal favorite actor.
Eight years after the release of The Best Years of Our Lives, for which he won an Oscar, Best Actor in a Leading Role. His first name, Fredric, is misspelled Frederic, on the desk on set. The same thing happened in the closing credits for The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).
